Last Thursday, the third and final installment of the on-campus speaker roundtable “The War in Gaza and the International Context” was interrupted by student protestors affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), some of whom may face disciplinary action from the College.

Decades of consistently low enrollment by students at the College in the Williams-Mystic study abroad program — the College’s coastal and ocean studies program in Mystic, Conn. — have prompted senior staff to consider not renewing its partnership agreement with the Mystic Seaport Museum. The decision, if implemented, would end the College’s financial support for the Williams-Mystic Program and effectively close it to future participants.

Limited access to goods and services determines many students’ experience of Williamstown. For Black students, the College’s geography is not only a peripheral inconvenience: It’s directly related to intimate parts of daily life, including the care and preservation of hair. The Record interviewed students at the College about the networks of hair styling at the College, the politics of hair and respectability, and the position of hair as a locus of community and empowerment.